7 Behind-the-Scenes Facts About "Wonder Woman"

Rebecca Steel Roven is not your average 30-year-old. The movie business legacy — her dad, Charles Roven, is the Academy Award nominated producer of DC's The Dark Knight trilogy, and her mom, Dawn Steel, was the first woman to ever head a studio when she was the president of Columbia Pictures — has been working in the business since she began assisting the camera department on Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm when she was just 16. So it just makes sense that she's an executive producer on a movie about another extraordinary lady — Wonder Woman! Here, Roven shared some behind-the-scenes about the making of the movie.

1. The Themyscira scenes were shot in Italy, but they scouted locations worldwide. "We looked at a number of different Asian locations. We talked about New Zealand for a while," Roven says. They decided to shoot in Italy, primarily in the south, in an area called Marina di Camerota, and also in Ravello and Matera. "It's a combination of those three places that really make up what came to be Themyscira."

2. Everyone hung out at a resort while they were in Italy. "It is so beautiful there, and the nature of what we were filming, all of the Amazons, it really just lent itself to a very magical experience," Roven says. "We [stayed at] three different resorts, but the main one was called Happy Village, and it's pretty incredible. All of the Amazons were staying there, all of the crew, and everybody had their families with them. It was just an amazing thing to wake up every day and walk down to the beach and there's all these incredible, strong, capable women on horses in front of and behind the camera. And of course, you know, amazing men too. It was really spectacular. We all became very, very close."

3. Shooting the battle scenes with the Amazons was an emotional experience. "There is this amazing battle on the beach where we see all of the Amazons fighting together and defending their island from these outside invaders," she says. "Being there and filming that was really as exciting as I hope it is to watch it on screen. Really, it was unprecedented, and I think an amazing experience for everyone. The first time that [I saw] these Amazonian women on horseback charging the beach, being led by Robin Wright, is something that I will never forget."

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4. Director Patty Jenkins gave a very specific note to Lucy Davis for playing Etta Candy. "Patty had been really excited to talk to her, and when they had their first Skype conversation about the role, the fact that the movie was period and set in 1918 came up. Lucy read some dialogue, and as she and Patty were talking about it, Patty was giving her notes about 'the way you're saying that, you wouldn't necessarily be that sure of yourself as you're speaking. You wouldn't necessarily be used to speaking that directly to someone.' If you look at the character, the way she talks, she almost has this way that she kind of mumbles to herself. Like a little under her breath, and it ends up being this great comedic quirk of the character. But that element came out of this really astute conversation between the two of them of how would a woman of that time carry herself? How would she be used to conversing with different kinds of people?"

Roven can't say whether you'll see Etta fighting in future installments, "but we do have some pretty exciting content with Etta that we are working for the home video release," she says. "We will all be able to get another fix pretty soon."

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5. The Amazons don't dress for men, but they still care about how they look. "[It was] really important [that these women], although they lived in solitude, would still care about how they dressed," Roven explained. "The clothing that they wear needed to be practical but also stylish. To that extent, Patty and [costume designer] Lindy Hemmings looked at a number of high fashion influences for inspiration in addition to drawing inspiration from Greek armor and other classical sources."

6. The No Man's Land fight scene was one of the hardest to get right. "The scene where we see Diana emerge from the trench was one that Patty was extremely passionate about from the beginning," Roven says. "Originally, there was a bit of contention over how it was conceived and whether it could work as a big action sequence. Patty really championed that moment as being not just about the action, but also a major emotional turning point for Diana. I think the result is that it is very satisfying on an emotional level to watch Diana take a stand in No Man's Land even though she doesn't know if she can actually make it across to help the villagers. Then, when she is successful, we get to see her empowered by her experience as she really starts to kick butt while working with the team to liberate the town."

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7. The importance of Patty, a woman, directing the movie isn't lost on anyone who worked on the film. "Even though Patty is really only the second woman to head a movie of this budget level ... just for younger women to grow up with that is really a game changer. Being able to look at someone who has come before you who has done it, when you see that, it's like, 'If she can do it, why not me?' We had the premiere last night and I watched it sitting next to an amazing ten-year-old girl, and that experience was so magical."

Laura BeckLaura Beck is a Los Angeles-based TV writer and frequent contributor to Cosmopolitan.com — her work has appeared in the New York Times, New Yorker, Jezebel, and the Village Voice.

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